10 Tips for Perfect Pizza

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Recently I had the pleasure of attending Pizza a Casa on Grand Street right here in New York City. Class was taught by Mark Bello, self-taught maestro of pizza. At first glance, his school closely resembles a classic New York storefront pizzeria — the kind that sells pizza by the slice — but it's set up with a long table and workstations for a dozen students. Also notable: Instead of a massive pizza oven, there's only a double oven, like the kind that's used in home kitchens, and that's because the whole point is to learn how to make pizza in your own home. And boy, did I learn.

Now, if you've been reading my posts regularly, you know I've long been making pizza at home in the oven and on the grill, but my skills were kicked up way more than a notch in just one evening. As it's probably not likely that many of you will be taking pizza classes, although I certainly encourage you to look into it if you live in NYC, I thought I'd share some of the things I learned that really make a big difference.

Set a pizza stone in the middle rack of the oven.Preheat the oven as high as it can go.

Use a mixer or your hands for kneading. Forgo the food processor — it will be rough on the dough and lead to a lifeless pizza.

Keep the sauce simple. Buy high-quality, pureed San Marzano tomatoes. Then taste, adding salt if needed, and a bit of sugar if they taste too tart. If you like, grate in a few cloves of garlic with a Microplane grater. Yes, that's it!

The technique for rolling forgoes a pin and definitely doesn't involve throwing the dough in the air. Start by pressing the dough out into a flat disc. Then with one hand holding the dough on the upper edge and the hand stretching off to the other side, use a deejay-like motion to continue increasing the diameter of your dough. No need to make it perfect... You want it to look handmade. Mark says, "It really tastes better that way too."

Sprinkle semolina flour on a pizza peel and set your crust on top of it.

Now, it's time to dress your crust, but you must use restraint. First goes the mozzarella (fresh, please). Yes, you read right, cheese first — and trust me, just a little.

Top that with a spiral of sauce, being sure to put some sauce on top of the cheese. Use way less and less again than you're accustomed to using, eating, or think you need. Again, trust me — this is the single most important thing I learned — it keeps the crust crisp and tender and lets what's topping it "sing." Now add any additional toppings like sausage, olives, or grilled eggplant, but don't overdo these either.

With a shimmy motion, transfer your pizza from peel to stone, and bake.

Timing will depend on your oven. Mark checks at 5 minutes, although generally a pizza takes about 8 to 12 minutes to bake.